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About this project

For all 4 weekends in the month of October a whole crew of volunteers have been performing live music on the streets of Salem while half a million visitors visit for the month-long Halloween event.

This is all done on a shoe string budget. The primary sponsor is The Gathering, a small local church in Salem, MA. We donate our sound system and lighting, gather our friends to set up the stage, give away thousands of cups of fair trade hot cocoa, and organize and run the music for 9 full days of live music.

We consider this one of the ways we can contribute to making Salem a safer, warmer, more inviting environment each October.

Costs to make this all happen:

Scaffolding Rental to Build a Stage: about $750Other costs for stage supplies: about $250Keeping our sound system kicking: about $200/yr.Supplies for free Hot Cocoa: about $1,400

As you can see, our goal isn't even close to covering the costs for making this happen. In fact, the above costs are not everything. So, if we've reached our goal, don't hesitate to keep giving. The more that comes in the better the event can be!

Risks and challenges

The amount of work to set up and run sound for the Fountain Stage is great, as we seek the volunteers to help us make this happen throughout the month, but we are sufficiently qualified - we've done it 13 times before. We know it will happen again.